A ObjRef is a serializable representation of an object used to transfer an object reference across an application domain boundary. Creating a ObjRef for an object is known as marshaling. The ObjRef can be transferred through a channel into another application domain (possibly on another process or computer). Once in the other application domain, the ObjRef must be parsed to create a proxy for the object, generally connected to the real object. This operation is known as unmarshaling. During unmarshaling, the ObjRef is parsed to extract the method information of the remote object and both the transparent proxy and RealProxy objects are created. The content of the parsed ObjRef is added to the transparent proxy before the transparent proxy is registered with the common language runtime.

A ObjRef contains information that describes the Type and class of the object being marshaled, a URI that uniquely identifies the specific object instance, and communication related information about how to reach the remoting subdivision where the object is located.

When first created, the proxy is of type MarshalByRefObject. As you cast it into different types, the remoting infrastructure keeps track of the most used type to avoid loading the type unnecessarily.